How to Plan a Successful Branded Giveaway Collaboration
Stacey Corrin
Stacey Corrin
John Turner
John Turner
Running a branded giveaway collaboration can help you reach more people, grow your email list, and build trust, all at once.
Instead of doing everything solo, you team up with another brand that shares your audience. You both promote the same prize, collect leads together, and double the exposure. It’s one of the simplest ways to run a more effective giveaway without doubling your workload.
In this guide, I’ll show you how to plan a successful branded giveaway collaboration from start to finish. You’ll learn how to find the right partner, structure your campaign, and track the results that actually matter.
What You’ll Learn:
What Is a Branded Giveaway Collaboration?
A collaboration giveaway is a contest co-hosted by two or more brands that work together to promote a shared prize.
Each brand promotes the giveaway to their own audience, which helps everyone involved get more visibility, traffic, and entries. It’s a win-win setup, where you split the work and multiply the results.
This type of giveaway is useful when both brands serve a similar audience but don’t directly compete. For example, a skincare brand and a beauty influencer might team up to offer a product bundle on Instagram.
Or two software businesses might co-host a giveaway on their websites using a giveaway tool like Thrive Themes did in this example:
Collaboration giveaways work so well because:
- You reach more people
- You share the work
- You build trust by teaming up
Whether you run it on your blog or social media, this strategy can attract high-quality leads and long-term growth for both brands.
How to Find the Right Giveaway Partner
You don’t need a huge brand to run a successful giveaway. You just need the right fit.
That means finding someone who shares your audience, your values, and your energy. You’re not just teaming up, you’re building something together.
When I’m looking for potential partnerships, I look for:
- Audience match – Do their followers care about the same things yours do?
- Non-competing offer – Your products or services should go well together, not overlap.
- Similar size and momentum – A fair collaboration works best when both sides bring equal energy.
You can usually get a good feel by checking their recent posts, how often they promote things, and how their audience responds. It doesn’t have to be a perfect match, just enough alignment to make the partnership feel natural.
Tip: Start with brands you already follow or engage with. If you’ve ever thought, “Our audiences would love each other,” that’s a great sign.
Free: Download Our Giveaway Playbook
Templates, prize ideas, and promotion strategies in one guide.
Best Tools to Run a Branded Giveaway Collaboration
The right tools can take a lot of pressure off your collaboration, especially when it comes to setup, tracking, and making sure both partners get the results they want.
If you’re using WordPress, RafflePress is the best giveaway plugin I’ve found.
You can create a landing page, add actions like “Follow both brands” or “Join both email lists,” and even track performance for each entry. It also gives both partners visibility without needing to mess with code or third-party forms.
Here are a few more tools I recommend using alongside RafflePress:
- Email marketing – Use platforms like Constant Contact or ConvertKit to send giveaway reminders and follow-ups.
- UTM builder – Google’s Campaign URL Builder makes it easy to track who’s sending the most traffic.
- Analytics – Google Analytics, email open rates, and RafflePress insights help you see what’s working.
How to Structure Your Collaboration Giveaway
A strong structure keeps your giveaway focused and easy to run. It also makes sure both brands get something valuable out of it.
Let’s break it into a few key parts.
Set a Clear Goal
Before you start planning anything else, get clear on your goal. What do you want this giveaway to achieve?
Here are a few common goals that work well for branded collaborations:
- Grow your email list
- Get more social media followers
- Drive traffic to a new product or launch
- Collect user-generated content or feedback
Pick one main goal and build everything else around it. Your prize, entry actions, and even the wording on your call-to-action should all point to that outcome.
Choose the Right Prize
Your prize is what gets people to stop scrolling and pay attention. In a collaboration giveaway, it needs to appeal to both audiences rather than just yours.
Here are a few ideas that usually work well:
- A product bundle with items from each brand
- A gift card that can be used on either site
- An exclusive item or limited-edition product
- A free service, session, or digital package from both sides
Make sure the prize feels valuable and relevant. If it’s too one-sided, people from the other brand’s audience might ignore it and that defeats the whole point of teaming up.
Real Example: Skincare brand Krave Beauty and acne-care brand ZitSticka teamed up on Instagram to give away a co-branded prize bundle.
The result? Over 4,000 entries from an audience that cared about both sides of the offer. It worked because the prize was relevant, balanced, and visually appealing to both communities.
If you need more ideas, see our full list of giveaway prize ideas that actually get entries.
Choose the Best Entry Methods
Now it’s time to decide how people will enter your giveaway. The best entry methods are easy to complete and tied directly to your goal.
For a branded giveaway collaboration, these are some of the most effective actions:
- Follow both brands on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook
- Join both email lists
- Visit your websites
- Share the giveaway with friends
- Submit user-generated content (like a photo or testimonial)
- Answer a quick survey or poll
Try to keep the number of actions manageable. Too many steps can overwhelm people. I usually stick with 3 to 5 entry options that give value to both sides.
Design a Clean, Co-Branded Giveaway Page
Your giveaway page is the first thing people see, so it needs to look polished and reflect both brands equally.
When putting my own together, I always include the following elements:
- Both logos or brand names near the top
- A clear headline that explains what you’re giving away
- A high-quality image of the prize, not a stock photo
- Short, scannable text that tells people what to do and why it’s worth it
- Consistent colors and fonts that feel aligned with both brands
If you’re using RafflePress, you can create a distraction-free giveaway landing page that focuses attention and boosts conversions.
But if you want more control over the full layout, you can pair it with a drag-and-drop builder like SeedProd to match your exact branding. It even comes with its own RafflePress block so you can add your entry widget with just a few clicks.
Keep the layout clean and focused. The fewer distractions on the page, the more likely people are to follow through and enter.
Add Giveaway Rules and Instructions
People won’t enter if they’re confused, or worse, unsure if they even qualify. Clear instructions remove the guesswork and help more people complete their entries.
To avoid any friction, make sure your giveaway includes:
- How to enter – What actions do people need to take? (e.g. “Complete at least 2 of the steps below”)
- Who can enter – Any location or age restrictions? Be upfront.
- Start and end dates – Include the time zone to avoid confusion.
- Entry limits – Can someone enter daily? Just once?
- Terms and conditions – Link to a full set of rules, even if they’re simple.
One thing I love about using a giveaway plugin like RafflePress is you can display custom instructions right inside the entry widget so everything’s easy to follow.
The easier it is to understand the rules, the more likely people are to follow through and enter.
Legal Tip: Giveaway laws vary depending on where you and your audience live. Always double-check local rules about eligibility, prize disclosures, and data collection.
RafflePress includes a Giveaway Rules Generator to help you create a basic terms and conditions page, but it’s still a good idea to consult a legal expert if you’re not sure what applies to you.
For more help, see my guide on how to write giveaway rules.
Plan Your Giveaway Promotion
A great prize and clean setup won’t matter if no one hears about it. Your promotional plan doesn’t need to be complicated; it just needs to be clear and consistent across both brands.
Start by choosing a launch day you both agree on. From there, map out a few key moments:
- Kickoff announcement across your main channels
- Midway reminder to keep the momentum going
- Final-day push to drive last-minute entries
Real Example: Liquid I.V. and BlendJet partnered for a co-hosted Instagram giveaway that featured a wellness kit combining products from both brands.
They promoted it through shared posts and aligned messaging, encouraging follows and tags across both audiences. The campaign stood out because the prize felt natural and their promotion was consistent across every channel.
To keep things easy, prep your graphics and swipe copy in advance. Drop everything in a shared folder so you and your partner can stay in sync without chasing edits last minute.
Need help deciding where to promote your giveaway? See these contest promotion ideas to boost visibility and get more entries.
How to Pick and Announce Your Giveaway Winner
When your giveaway ends, the last thing you want is confusion or delay. Choosing a winner quickly and announcing it clearly helps you stay transparent and keeps the momentum going.
If you’re using RafflePress, there’s a built-in random winner picker that makes the process simple. Just go to your entries and click “Pick Winner.”
Here is the process I follow when drawing a winner:
- Verify eligibility – Make sure the winner actually completed the required actions
- Email them privately – Ask for any needed details like shipping info
- Announce the winner publicly – Post it on social media, email your list, or update the giveaway page
- Thank everyone who entered – A simple thank-you post or follow-up email goes a long way
Want to go a step further? Offer a bonus to non-winners like a small discount or free download. It’s a nice way to keep the relationship going.
If you need more help with this step, check out our full guide on how to pick a giveaway winner.
What to Review After Your Giveaway Ends
Once your giveaway is over and the winner has been announced, take a little time to reflect on how things went from both your perspective and your partner’s.
Start by checking in with your collaborator. Ask what worked well, what challenges came up, and whether they’d be open to teaming up again.
You can also gather feedback from participants using a quick email or poll. Even a few responses can reveal what people enjoyed, what confused them, or what might encourage them to enter again.
Then review your results. Look at total entries, email signups or follower growth, traffic sources (using UTM links), and how many people actually completed their entries.
If a certain action was ignored or one post drove the most traffic, take note for next time.
See my guide on contest metrics to understand which ones are worth tracking.
It doesn’t need to be a full report. Just jot down what you learned while it’s still fresh so you can make your next collaboration even better.
FAQs About Branded Giveaway Collaborations
Putting Your Giveaway Plan Into Action
Teaming up with another brand is one of the most effective ways to grow your audience, build trust, and run a giveaway that delivers real results. You share the promotion, split the effort, and give your audience something worth getting excited about.
And if you’re ready to launch your branded giveaway in WordPress, RafflePress has everything you need. You can build a co-branded giveaway, add actions for both partners, and track performance, all from one place, no coding needed.
If you’re looking for more tips to make your giveaway a success, see my essential giveaway guides:
- How to Create Custom Giveaway Images for Free
- How to Use Good Giveaway Copywriting to Drive Entries
- How to Use Contest SEO to Boost Your Website’s Rankings
- How to Use Contest Marketing to Grow Your Business
- Sweepstakes Definition Vs Contest Vs Lottery
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